


how to make tea

by maketea



Series: the ways you said i love you [4]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: (or rather marinette), F/M, Ladybug Being Ladybug, i have no explanation for this, pre reveal, this is borderline crack fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:07:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23266702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maketea/pseuds/maketea
Summary: ladybug didn't like tea.adrien didn't know how to make tea.there shouldn't have been a problem there, but adrien was an idiot, and now there was.(prompt 4 = over a cup of tea)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: the ways you said i love you [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667194
Comments: 37
Kudos: 217





	how to make tea

**Author's Note:**

> written by ao3 user maketea

Ladybug didn't like tea.

Adrien didn't know how to make tea.

There shouldn't have been a problem there, but Adrien was an idiot, and now there was.

Kagami often liked to tease Adrien for his lack of expertise with welcoming guests to his home.

“You could have at least offered me a cup of tea, Adrien,” she had reproached (joked? He had been too embarrassed to make the distinction). “What an impolite host you are.”

So when Ladybug swung up to his room and knocked on his window, the first thing he said was—

“Ladybug! Nice to see you! Wanna come in for a cup of tea?”

And Ladybug, Ladybug who hated tea, Ladybug who spent the entirety of last night’s patrol complaining that she was out of hot chocolate and would  _ never  _ let tea touch her lips, said,

“S-sure! You sound great— I mean! That sounds great!”

Adrien stood in front of his kitchen counter with a mug he had never touched in front of him.

Would Kagami laugh at him if he called her at midnight and asked where the tea in his house was kept?

Yes, the answer would be yes.

He flung open cabinet after cabinet, peered into each of the jars neatly arranged at the back seam of the counters, feeling like a stranger in his own kitchen. Adrien was barely down there anyway — after all, he had a chef on call — and when he was there, it was always past midnight, and his journey started and ended in the fridge, never anywhere else.

Finally, in a cabinet beside the oven, were boxes of tea.

_ Plural. _

The first thing he wondered, exasperated, was when  _ anyone _ in the Agreste mansion drank enough tea to justify a cabinet up to the brim with at least fifteen brands. The second thing he wondered, taking out a white box, was what type of tea would be best for someone who hates tea.

He deliberated. Then dropped two tea bags into the mug, filled it with water, and headed back up the staircase.

Ladybug was loitering awkwardly by the window when he returned.

"Oh, you should sit down," he told her, lowering himself to the couch. "I brought your tea."

She stared at it for a moment. "Ah… that's… very kind of you." Then sat beside him.

Adrien handed it over. Ladybug stared some more, until, finally, she tightened her lips, took in a deep breath, and cupped the mug in her hands.

He winced when she put her mouth to the rim.

" _ Oh," _ she said, "oh, it's, yeah, delicious!"

Adrien looked from the blackness in the mug to Ladybug. Her lips were fighting off a purse.

"What, uh, what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.

She swished the tea around between her hands, and Adrien realised just how big that mug was. It was almost a  _ bowl _ of black tea, two tea bags breaking the surface when she swished too much to one side, potential to spill a lot when she jerked just a little.

"I, well, you know Marinette Dupain-Cheng, right?"

"Yeah, she's in my class," he said. "Why? Is she okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine! Well, I  _ think _ she's fine, I mean, I don't really know her that well — it'd be weird if I knew her well because, you know, superhero-civilian boundaries… which I suppose I'm not really following  _ now _ , but…" Catching his eyes, she lifted the mug back up to her lips. "Sorry. Give me a sec."

Ladybug closed her eyes and took a long sip. Adrien watched her face twitch.

“Marinette said she wanted to give you—”

“Are you  _ sure _ that tea is okay, Ladybug?”

She blinked at him. “Y-yes, of course. You’re perfect— I mean!  _ It’s  _ perfect!”

“As long as it’s fine.” He eyed the mug again, the crescent of her lip gloss on the rim. “You were saying?”

She cleared her throat. “Marinette said she wanted to give you something, but missed you in class today.” With one hand on the mug, she flicked open her yo-yo, before realising her state of impasse. “Uh, could you…?”

“Of course.” He took the mug from her, and peeked down at the bobbing tea bags. While she fiddled with her yo-yo, Adrien took a sip. He balked. “Ladybug, this is disgusting.”

She snapped around, a letter halfway out of her yo-yo. “No, it’s great! I love you— it! I love it! Give it here.” Ladybug snatched the mug from his hands and took a long, emphatic sip. Adrien almost gagged. “Mm… tea.”

“You really don’t have to—”

Adrien dwindled off, because Ladybug furrowed her brow, dropped the letter on the floor, and chugged the tea.

He could only stare.

Ladybug  _ chugged  _ the  _ bowl  _ of unsugared, unwhitened black tea.

Black streams leaked out from either end of her lips.

Adrien, agape, grew even  _ more  _ agape.

That tea was  _ scorching. _

She gulped down the last few drops, slammed the mug onto her knee, and wiped her chin with the back of her wrist.

Then, she froze, eyes meeting his, face scarleting.

“I can’t believe I just did that,” she muttered.

Adrien, equally as stunned, looked into the mug. The bottom was almost completely clean. “Should I call a doctor?”

She paused. “I have to go home now.”

Stumbling to her feet, she grabbed the letter off the floor, threw it at him, and rushed up to his window.

“I, uh, I’ll see you in class— I mean! If I swing by your classroom one day. Which I probably won’t, because that’d be  _ weird _ , and, like, superhero-civilian boundaries, haha! I don’t just go and visit people in their classrooms — well, unless you wanted me to, but I guess that wouldn’t really be feasible— anywaythanksforthetea okay bye!”

She all but leapt right out of his window.

Adrien looked down at the tea drops speckled on his couch.

_ What? _


End file.
